The word "glamour" existed before the invention of moving pictures, but it is hard to think of glamour now without feeling some connection to Hollywood. The design origin of glamour comes from when the film industry was at its peak in the 1930s and '40s, when movie attendance was at its highest per capita. The film industry pushed the envelope of escapism for a nation seeking an escape from the Depression, and then world war. But as the US moved into the prosperous but conservative 1950s, glamour, amazingly, was left behind. Now as the world moves into the 21st century, glamour is back, bringing with it the bewitching atmosphere of a magical time and place.

Glamour has transformed itself into the darling of the design world whose image is being invoked by a host of America's star designers, including Jamie Drake, Nancy Corzine, and Charles Pavarini.

While it's true that glamour has been kicking up its rhinestone high heels ever since Fred and Ginger tripped the light fantastic in 1933's Flying Down to Rio, it's only lately what Drake dubbed "New American Glamour" has really made itself at home. How do we know this? None other than Paris Hilton has chosen what Corzine calls the Jean Harlow look for her Beverly Hills home. "She didn't use the word 'glamour,'" Corzine confides. Like a lot of Corzine's clients who order her glam mirrored furniture, Hilton wanted her home to "be pretty and to make me look and feel pretty." These new furnishings also resonate the Vie-Luxe lifestyle identified by Grace McNamara Inc. These luxury furnishings are extravagant and accentuated and are not holding back.

While the new glamour tips its top hat to classic Hollywood, it also plays to the technology and trappings of the 21st century to create an eclectic aesthetic that is what all clients seem to be asking for-chic enough for a cocktail party yet comfortable enough for the pitter patter of little and big bare feet.

The fantasy of glamour, declares Pavarini, has proved irresistible because it softens the harsh reality of everyday life. "What makes a room glamorous is not any one item but a constellation of things," he says. "The room casts a spell that takes you out of your normal expectations and takes you into an area that is enchanting, mystical, and mesmerizing." The style is catching on all over the country, Drake says, "because people want to bring the bling inside." Vie-Luxe, a luxury market trend that emphasizes embellishment with polished surfaces and sparkling crystals, supports this idea.

But what exactly is glamour? Bewitching, enchanting, alluring-it is all that and more. It is, even when defined by club chairs and Victorian loveseats instead of words in the dictionary, elusive and mysterious: "a feeling, a state of mind that can be as informal as a t-shirt and jeans," says Corzine.

While there is no script for creating glamorous interiors, there are certain elements that Drake, Pavarini, and Corzine employ to achieve what Drake calls a "bold, confident urban style that communicates a story." The starring players include: luster or shine, especially through mirrored surfaces, crystal chandeliers, and gold and other metals; feel-good and contrasting luxury textures; details of haute couture such as hand-embroidery on bedroom draperies; and surprise elements that, like characters in 1930s musicals who burst into song when least expected, capture the attention long after the floor show has ended. (Think about the unlikely pairing of average-looking Fred with gorgeous Ginger! It was his dancing, not his looks, that did the trick.)

Hollywood, of course, always makes a happily-ever-after ending. Drake, for instance, referred to the big screen when designing a larger-than-life living room for a Los Angeles showhouse. The 25-foot-by-42-foot room got the star treatment with 16-foot-long back-to-back sofas, Nancy Corzine chairs upholstered in shiny silver fabric, and an over-the-top chandelier and matching sconces that Drake describes as "champagne bubbles, pure Hollywood."

Designing a glamorous space is glamorous in and of itself, because it allows the designer/director to tell his or her own mysteriously exciting story.

For Corzine, the opening shots of the plot usually start with the furniture. Long before glamour made its comeback, Corzine was dazzling the design world with her silver-screen- inspired mirrored furniture, which recently was discovered by Paris Hilton. "Glamour is sparkly, soft, and quiet," explains Corzine, a self-described movie-magazine junkie. "It's knowing how to design with restraint. Not every room should be glamorous, but sometimes it turns out that way."

Hilton, for instance, chose Corzine's mirrored furniture, including a bed with a pink-satin headboard, Lucite pieces, and traditional Louis XVI chairs lacquered white and upholstered with white leather to create her ode to Hollywood.

Much of the shine and shimmer of Pavarini's designs comes from the set- design-style lighting. In his 2006 Kips Bay bedroom, lighting took center stage: the king-size bed's upholstered headboard and matching cove wall were illuminated in pastel colors that slowly and subtly changed.

Drake glammed up a Southampton showhouse bedroom and dressing room by designing furniture from unexpected materials. The bedroom was awash in shimmering water colors-cool blues and greens-that created a luxe setting for his Amoré "love" bed, which has four posts of glass topped by crystal balls; and his Swag chair, whose curvaceous back is reminiscent of a low-cut ballgown.

As if these touches were not Hollywood enough, Drake dressed the windows up in what he calls "a frothy confection of silk taffeta" and white burn-out sheers in a paisley design boldly bound with bands of Shantung silk.

To bring glitter to the space, he covered the walls with a hand-painted and hand-blocked ice-blue paper that has silver and metallic pigments and defined the ceiling with stretched silver linen trimmed with a silver and jute-twisted cord that frames it like a work of art. The jewelry-like pulls on the commodes he designed for each side of the bed continue the shiny theme.

Texture, another glamorous element, is brought into the spotlight through the 1970s stained-goatskin desk in the sitting area and a pair of metal chairs that are upholstered in moss-green velvet.

In the dressing room, a vanity mirror capped with a set of crystal balls like those on the bed ties together the two spaces and reflects the shiny lacquer vanity top, which is the color of an olive marinated in a very dry martini, the kind Nick and Nora Charles sipped all through the Thin Man comedy-detective series. The psychedelic wallpaper, which looks like William Morris on LSD, is reined in by the classic box-pleated vanity skirt worthy of Gilbert Adrian's atelier. The room's warm glow comes from a 1960s Venetian glass chandelier, in the shape of a magic mushroom.

For Pavarini-interior designer, fashion designer, set designer-the epitome of glamour is embodied in the unexpected: a king-size mink throw at the footboard of a bed; a painting backlit to look as though it's floating in thin air; or lavish, transparent bias-cut draperies.

His designs, which borrow not only from Hollywood movies but also from haute-couture runways-are sensuous because they speak to the senses. Dressmaker details such as hand-embroidered bed clothes and theatrical lighting catch the eye, and scented candles and mood music define his "sets."

In one recent Kips Bay Showhouse, he created a sitting room that looked like it was made for a private yacht. He achieved elegance by pairing a chair that had acrylic legs with a 1940s floor lamp with an inverted shade and an artfully draped curtain made of the finest cashmere.

A 5-foot-by-9-foot mirror, daringly set on the floor and angled in a corner, became the glamorous focal point of a rehearsal space Pavarini designed for singer/actress Vanessa Williams. If the mirror was unexpected, so was the flat-screen TV embedded at the top of it and the single sconce that illuminated its side. "I designed the mirror so she could watch rehearsal videos in it," he says.

The other major unexpected touch in the Williams' room was also the most flamboyant: the sheer silk charmeuse draperies that put the spotlight on the room's magnificent palladian windows. "I had them cut on the bias, even though the workroom told me it couldn't be done," Pavarini says. "It is glamorous because the fabric is luxe and used in an abundant way-it doesn't mean abundant quantity but abundant use."

Pavarini's brand of glamour relies upon subtlety to make its big statement. This is no more apparent than in a living room he designed for a showcase house. By using nothing more than a simple asymmetrical swag, Pavarini turned the Asian-inspired space into a showstopper. The fabric, which was draped over an 8-foot-wide space like a feather boa, was made of murano wool. "It is a reference to traditional, but it is very clean and contemporary, which is in keeping with the rest of the room, where the Asian influence is whispered in details, not necessarily through Asian pieces," he says.

A painting "floating" in the window, a clear-glass lamp with a too-wide lampshade that is only five inches deep, and a curvaceous ottoman of his own design that pays homage to the Salvador Dali's Mae West Lips sofa are among the parts of the story that are revealed to all those who enter.

The new glamour is here, and stay tuned for the next act. We may not know exactly what it is, but rest assured it will hold our interest. FFI